Council Members Featured at Farm Futures Boot Camp

It was a full house at the Ag Finance Boot Camp. The program had originally been set for early January but winter storms required it be rescheduled to the February 20 date.

Over 80 farmers and land owners from as far away as Washington, D.C. and Upstate New York attended the 2014 Farm Futures Ag Finance Boot Camp held in St. Louis on February 20. Addressing the group were officers and board members of the Farm Financial Standards Council. Topics during the day-long event included the role of financial record keeping, the basics of understanding balance sheets and income statements, using ag accounting in decision-making, and an open panel forum on key issues. The program was hosted by Farm Futures magazine and was sponsored by John Deere, Farm Credit, and the Council.

FFSC President Jim Kelm, principal with Kelm Man- agement/Dairy Business Consulting, Red Wing, MN, opened the activities and moderated a panel discus- sion later in the day.

Paul Neiffer, FFSC Secretary/Treasurer and principal with the AgriBusiness Group of CliftonLarsonAllen, LLP, Yakima, WA, led discussion on why financial record keeping for agriculture is more than cash-basis accounting. He reviewed the defini- tions of bash basis and accrual accounting, the relationship between the income state- ment and the balance sheet, and why earnings are affected by changes in accounts payable and receivable, and changes in current and non-current assets.

Lance Fulton, FFSC Market- ing Committee chair, chief ac- counting officer, Foreland Ag, LLC, Garden City, KS, gave a presenta- tion on understanding the balance sheet, income statement, statement of cash flows, and statement of owner’s equity. This covered what information is in each report, how to use the reports in business decision-making, and what records are necessary to produce the reports.

Steve Witges, Farm Credit Illinois, Effing- ham, IL, discussed risk management from a lender’s perspective.

Teresa Garside, director, Market Development Ag & Turf, John Deere Financial discussed considerations to be given when weighing leasing against purchasing of equipment. The Market Development organiza- tion teams manage the processes that assess customer requirements, aggregate and prioritize those requirements into a shared view, inte- grate them into John Deere Financial decisions related to financial servic- es, and then execute the marketing tactics delivered to customers.

Stephen Severe, an FFSC Board Member, Chief Financial Officer of Padlock Ranch Company, Ranchester, WY, was part of a discussion on using the principles of ag ac- counting in decision-making. Padlock Ranch is a 475,000-acre property straddling the Montana and Wyoming state line. In addition to raising cattle the facility offers working ranch vacations, photography vacations, and private hunting and fishing experiences. Severe has adopted many of the principles of the Management Accounting Guidelines put forth by the Council. He was joined by Eric Edwards, senior vice president, credit manager, NBH Food & Agribusiness Banking Group, Greenwood, CO. The two dis- cussed understanding measures of Liquidity, Solvency, Profitability, Repayment Capac- ity and Efficiency. The session focused on how to use these measures to evaluate the financial strength of an agricultural business.

Julie Strain (left), sales engineer, Red Wing Software, Red Wing, MN, was joined by Lance Fulton and Dwight Raab (right), state coordinator, Illinois Farm Business Farm Management, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, in a panel dis- cussion on key financial questions for farmers and ranchers. Topics covered included financial literacy required to do accrual accounting, inside vs outside accounting services, training available for accounting software and financial management, the costs of software, training, maintenance and support of software and management advisors, and whether or not financial and production management can be integrated.

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Council Members Featured at Farm Futures Boot Camp

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